Deepening Russia-China ties are a direct threat to democracy, Grant Shapps has said, in the first government reaction to Vladimir Putin’s visit to Beijing this week.

The Defence Secretary said that he was particularly concerned about plans to deepen security ties between Russia and China as the West struggles to arm Ukraine.

“These are two countries that do not believe in democracy. They are trying to spread their system to the rest of the world, we must see and have our eyes wide open that this is a direct threat to our way of life,” he told Sky News.

Mr Shapps also told Sky News’s Sunday Morning with Trevor Philips that he was increasingly concerned about a strengthened anti-West axis forming around Russia’s war in Ukraine.

“If we cherish our freedom, cherish our democracy, then we have to be concerned that they’re linking together and not just that Russia with Iran and using Iranian Shahed drones and the link to North Korea, buying North Korean weapons,” he said.

As well as boosting relations with China, Putin has signed weapon supply deals with North Korea and Iran to feed his forces in Ukraine with ammunition.

Mr Shapps said that the West needs to double down on its support for Ukraine and not delay sending weapons and equipment.

“We have to understand we are in an existential battle about the way we run the world order and about democracy itself,” he said. “By delaying what we should be doing ... we are running the risk of doing exactly what President [Volodymyr] Zelensky is concerned about.”

The United States still bans Ukraine from striking targets inside Russia with missiles that it has given to the Ukrainian military, despite Britain giving permission last month.

This has frustrated Ukrainian commanders, who have told the Telegraph that they had to stand and watch as Russian forces built up across the border last week before attacking north of Kharkiv.

Mr Shapps also appeared on Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg show on the BBC and said that Russia’s war-footing economy was unsustainable in the long term.

“Putin, in many ways, is bluffing this war by putting his entire economy onto a war footing in a way that actually isn’t sustainable for Russia over the years,” he said. “So [it is] very important that the West does not blink.”

Putin has reorientated Russia’s economy towards backing his war in Ukraine, switching civilian factories to producing artillery shells and drones.